BUFFALO, N.Y. -- With Wikipedia, Reddit and other websites
“going dark” today to raise awareness about two
anti-piracy bills that could affect the amount of content available
on the Internet, UB Law Associate Professor Mark Bartholomew shared
his thoughts on the pending legislation. The bills, the Stop Online
Piracy Act and PROTECT IP Act, are commonly known as “SOPA
and PIPA.”

On why SOPA could have a “chilling”
effect:

“The problem with SOPA is that the language is very vague.
So let’s say this passes without any further changes -- then
we’re going to have to rely on judges to evaluate this
language. They could construe it very narrowly and it won’t
affect things very much. Or they could construe it very broadly so
that all of a sudden, all this information on the Web is no longer
available. And that’s something potentially chilling --
having this vague language out there that gets passed by
Congress.”

“From the perspective of Google and other Silicon Valley
technologists, the thought is that this is going to go too far: How
are we supposed to know when a rogue website is 100 percent bad?
Maybe they just have a couple of things that are infringing.
Should a search engine really be required to block all access
to that website?”

On the widespread protest against SOPA and PIPA on the Web,
with Wikipedia and other sites “going dark” to raise
awareness about the legislation:

“I have been surprised. The story of modern copyright law
in this country has largely been of the copyright interests having
their way with Congress. The music and motion picture industries
have been incredibly effective lobbyists. But now we see for
perhaps the first time technologists like Google really flexing
their political muscle to potentially stop this legislation in its
tracks. I’m not that surprised that the blogosphere is
objecting to these proposed laws, but I am impressed by how
technology companies are channeling this Internet outrage into real
political momentum.”

On the purpose of SOPA:

“The purpose of the law is to limit the activity of
infringers who offer copyrighted material for free online. We
can’t stop these rogue infringers who act in foreign
jurisdictions, where U.S. law often doesn’t reach. So the
next best thing is to require Google or Yahoo and sites like these
to kick those people off the system.”

“Currently, Internet companies are only responsible for
removing specific infringing materials when they’re notified
of those specific materials by the copyright holder. With SOPA, the
threat is that they can be forced to remove entire websites. So
instead of removing one infringing video, Google would no longer be
able to present you with search results from an entire
website.”